>> more and more from the tape continues to be released and clarified, eventually at this rate, somebody is going to produce a hologram of mitt romney calling half the country victims, in your living room. when that happens it will be posted and cataloged for posterity at our website. the three clips are posted there now if you want to check them out. maddowblog.com. here it is. it's kind of heavy, but the most manipulated tax return in the history of presentation campaigns has been released. all 400 pages of it. but the ones we really want to see, the ones that could unmask mitt romney as a tax criminal, they're still secret. >> mitt romney will campaign more aggressively in battle ground states this week. >> the campaign reset for mitt romney is officially under way. >> how do you turn this thing around.

>> well, it doesn't need to turn around. >> the romney ryan campaign launches a tour through ohio. >> no republican presidential candidate has been elected president without winning ohio. >> he's got to offer specification. >> i could tell them specifically what my policy looks like. >> he seems to be saying the first thing that pops into his head. >> he seems to be bouncing around. >> the devil is in the details much the angel is in the policy. >> romney is losing it. >> the romney campaign is struggling. >> what is he going to offer? >> what's your big idea? >> freedom. >> are you willing to expose yourself. >> this is a campaign about a choice. >> he seems to only have one note. >> no, not mitt romney. >> tax cuts for the wealthy. >> that's essentially it. >> that is not a strategy to win. that is a strategy to lose. >> i pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. >> the taxes that came out on friday. >> on friday afternoon.

>> take out the trash day. >> i pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. >> romney actually paid more than he needed to. >> they are clearly worried. >> we're going to win. there's no question in my mind. >> mitt romney is not going to be present. >> if we don't run chris christie, mitt romney will be the nominee that will lose. with 43 days until the presidential election, the romney campaign is being attacked by republicans who want him to win but worry that he is stuck with a losing strategy and the obama re-election campaign, as predicted by ann romney, is using the romney tax returns as ammunition. >> governor romney on 60 minutes was asked does he think it's fair that he pays a lower tax rate than somebody who is making $50,000 a year.

and he said yes. i think it's fair and i also think that's the way you get economic growth. i've just got a different vision about how we grow an economy. i think, barbara, that you grow an economy from the middle out, not from the top down. >> today, the obama re-election campaign released this ad in ohio. >> mitt romney attacked 47% of americans who pay no income tax, including veterans, elderly, the disabled. >> my job is not to worry about those people. >> doesn't the president have to worry about everyone? mitt romney paid just 14.1% in tacks last year. he keeps millions in bermuda and the cayman islands. he won't release his tax returns before 2010. maybe instead of attacking others on taxes, romney should come clean on his. >> today, new jersey republican governor chris christie struggled to and failed to come up with pro romney spin. we had a bad week.

if the election were going to be held tomorrow, that would be a problem. the that's what chris christie says. on fox news sunday, bill crystal actually found himself complimenting the obama administrations' record while advising the romney campaign to focus on the next four years instead of the last four years. >> if this election is just about the last four years, it's a muddy verdict. bush was president during the financial melt down, the obama team has turned that around pretty well. >> and david brooks thinks he knows a moderate republican when he sees one. and that mitt romney is faking it when he tries to sell right wing extremism. >> mitt romney does not have the passion for the stuff he's talking about. he's a problem sofr. i think he's a nonideological person. and he's faking it.

>> rush limbaugh who pretty much hates everything that david brooks has to say, reacted this way to david brooks on his radio show today. >> ideological age that romney can't do it? isn't that why you told us he would be the best nominee? am i wrong -- am i missing something here? isn't that why brooks and others told us we had to nominate romney precisely because he wasn't ideological and that would be necessary to get the independence. if romney would go ideological in explaining obama, it would help. >> a new political national poll of likely voters shows president obama leading mitt romney by 3 points. tonight nate silver fraufts that on november 6th president obama will within 309 votes. today paul ryan picked off the

romney campaign's three day pus tour through ohio, where a new pole of ohio likely voters shows president obama leading by 5 points. no republican has won the presidency without winning ohio. mitt romney will join the ohio bus tour tomorrow. he and paul ryan will be then followed by the democratic national committee's own ohio bus tour which will stop in the same cities. the dnc's bus tour is called mitt romney writing off the middle class tour. joining me now from the dnc bus tour in columbus ohio, former ohio governor, ted strik land. and from new york, krystal ball.

>> fewer americans are working today than when president obama took office. it doesn't have to be this way. if obama would stand up to china. obama had years to stand up to china. we can't afford four more. >> governor, your reaction to that romney ad? >> well, i mean, it's a joke. everyone knows that president obama has done more than any previous president to make sure that our trade laws are fairly enforced. and he has taken action against china to protect the tire industry, for example, auto parts industry and so on. mitt romney is the guy who was a pioneer of outsourcing and mitt romney even today has some of his personal resources invested in china. i think it's a hollow charge. i don't think americans are going to fall for this. >> let's look at more of what's

going on in the intramural squabbles in the republican world. >> you called a romney campaign this week a rolling calamity. did you get any blow-back from your republican friends on that? >> privately the constant communication i got was thank you for saying that. they need help with the romney campaign. they need to be woken up. they need to raise their game. people in america who talk about politics they throw around numbers. there's the unfortunate 47% from mitt. there's the only we need 51% to win. maybe their essential problem was they were slicing and dicing in america. go bigger. >> it seems like it's a good thing that the obama campaign has not been listening to peggy noon an. >> good for who? >> for the obama campaign.

>> i think one of the reasons we're seeing so many romney allies and expressing their frustrations is that the romney campaign has been so all over the place in terms of their message that even if you wbt to defend them, have you to have some sense of where they're going and what their core message is to be able to defend the message. if you are bill crystal or david brooks, if you're trying to figure out how to help this guy, you can't do it when you have no idea what the central campaign message is this late in the game. >> let's listen to what mitt romney said about the details of his tax reform plan on "60 minutes." >> i will make sure that we bring down rates, we limit deductions and the exceptions. we encourage growth in jobs. >> and the devil's in the details, though. what are we talking about, the

mortgage deduction, the charitable deduction? >> the angel is in the policy which is creating more jobs. >> mitt romney is not going near that devil. >> so you don't buy the idea that everybody gets a tax cut, it's deficit neutral and we'll figure out the details later. i think that's basically the problem in a nutshell for the romney campaign and it's part of the reason why you have others starting to panic publicly and it's this. the central element of the romney campaign was that economic anxiety among swing voters was going to be so high they were going to have the attitude we just want to vote the incumbent out. they looked at president obama in 2012 and they said we've got the same thing this year. we need to be a generic protest vehicle. we need to be as inoffensive and

nonspecific as possible to swing voters. that strategy is good for 45, 46, 47% of the vote. it has not gotten them higher all year. there's no reason to think that that strategy alone is going to left them over the top. now you've got republicans that are starting to pan he can e romney has choices, he can start saying something more affirmative but if he wants to appeal to swing veeters, he's going to irritate his base. or he's going to alienate the swing voters. i think they're just finding out now it's not getting them quite where they thought it would. >> let's listen to the advise bill o'reilly has for mitt romney about how to handle the tax details question. >> i would say listen, with all due respect, scott, i can't tell you right now. because it's not fully formulated what i can do in that area. i don't want to hurt the housing industry, i don't want to hurt the chart tibl industry. however, we're going to take a

look at all of it, come to a consensus in congress and bring it down. i think that would be a good answer, would it not? >> governor strickland i want you to imagine you were on a debate stage with bill o'reilly. when he was questioned he said i can't tell you right now because it's not fully formulated. how do you think he would score with a debate like that. >> what a pathetic answer, even for bill o'reilly it's a pathetic answer. the fact is that mitt romney stands for nothing. john huntsman had it right in the primaries when he said that mitt romney was like a well-oiled weather vane. this man seems to have no core convictions and consequently his campaign is flounderring flopping back and forth.

even his supporters don't really know what he stands for because he doesn't stand for much except for tax cuts for really wealthy people. i think that's the core of his campaign and that's the problem. and that's why here in ohio he's not going over very well. this latest poll is an accurate reflection of what's going to happen in ohio come november 6th. no republican has won the presidency without winning ohio and mitt romney is not doing well in ohio right now. >> can you imagine presenting yourself as a candidate where you say i have a tax plan. i'm going to change your tax returns in very significant ways. however, i can not tell you about that. you're just going to have to vote for me and then you'll find out whether you still have a mortgage deduction, whether you

can still deduct state and local taxes. you'll find all that out later after you elect me. i've never heard this kind of presidential on taxes by a candidate before, and i just can't quite imagine a politician thinking that could work. >> well, i mean, this is an inept campaign, obviously. but i don't know why mr. romney wants to talk about taxes because whenever he talks about taxes it just remind people of his own tax returns that we haven't seen. and lawrence, he paid what, 14%? 14.1% on massive amounts of money that he received. the average ohioan pays 20.1% compared to mitt romney's 14.1%. that fact alone should cause mitt romney to want to stay away from the discussion of taxes. but i still think that there's something in his tax returns

that would be so damaging that he knows that it would be a deal breaker with the american people and that's why we probably will never see his tax returns. but i think that's very telling and i think that, as well as the cayman islands, the swiss bank account, his investments in multiple countries around the world, the fact that he called paul ryan's budget a marvel us budget. this man's got lots of problems and i don't think he can solve them in the next 44 or 43 days. >> thank you all for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. coming up, another episode of mitt vs mitt. mitt romney contradicted once again, mitt romney. and in the rewrite tonight, the things paul ryan can't say anymore thanks to mitt romney. for example, paul ryan never talks about the cayman islands anymore.

and he used to talk about the cayman islands. and tomorrow is the last day that crazy congressman todd akin can drop out of the senate race whichever republican including mitt romney wants him to do. so why was newt gingrich at todd akin's side today urging him to stay in. newt can't stop making trouble for mitt. that's coming up. i'm so g

lad you called. thank you. we're not in london, are we? no. why? apparently my debit card is. what? i know. don't worry, we have cancelled your old card. great. thank you. in addition to us monitoring your accounts for unusual activity, you could also set up free account alerts. okay. [ female announcer ] at wells fargo we're working around the clock to help protect your money and financial information. here's your temporary card. welcome back. how was london? [ female announcer ] wells fargo. together we'll go far.

mitt romney's latest idea for medical care for the uninsured puts him in conflict with mitt romney. mitt versus mitt is coming up next. and later it's mitt versus newt. >> does the government have a we've all had those moments.

when you lost the thing you can't believe you lost. when what you just bought, just broke. or when you have a little trouble a long way from home... as an american express cardmember you can expect some help. but what you might not expect, is you can get all this with a prepaid card. spends like cash. feels like membership. monarch of marketing analysis. with the ability to improve roi through seo all by cob. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. i'm going b-i-g. [ male announcer ] good choice business pro. good choice. go national. go like a pro.

>> does the government have a responsibility to provide health care to the 50 million americans who don't have it today? >> well, we do provide care for people who don't have insurance. if someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and die. we pick them up in an ambulance and take them to the hospital and give them care. and different states have different ways of providing for that care. >> that was mitt romney last night on "60 minutes." here's what mitt romney said to essentially the same question two very, very long years ago. >> do you believe in universal coverage? >> oh, sure. it doesn't make a lot of sense for us to have millions and millions of people who have no health insurance and yet who can go to the emergency room and get entearly free care for which they have no responsibility, particularly if they're people who have sufficient means to pay their own way.

>> joining me now former chairman of the democratic national committee and vermont governor dr. howard dean and the senior editor at the new republican and author of the book "sick". >> that would be the gotcha tape. on any other campaign it would be look at this he's in complete contradiction with himself only 24 months ago. in the romney campaign you just add it to this giant bonfire of these things that i don't know how to make sure these things get the right weight in this campaign. because there are so many of them. >> here's the thing that are amazing to me about what he said. he put in universal health insurance in massachusetts. he essentially used the same plan that president obama used. he doesn't appear to know what he's talking about. anybody who puts in a plan knows like this should know you can go to the emergency room and good good care, or expensive care.

i don't know what to think of this. he doesn't appear to know what he's talking about. here's the governor who presided over the farrest reaching health care plan in the united states today. i don't know what to say. i'm speechless. >> he clearly did know what he was talking about on morning joe there and he worked enough on the issue in massachusetts to know what he was talking about. and that appearance on "morning joe" was at the beginning of this presidential campaign. he knows then that he's going to be running for president. so he's giving a campaign answer then which he can no longer give, apparently. but as the governor just mentioned, one of the things that you can get at the emergency room is a very, very big bill that can put you into bankruptcy, isn't it? >> the emergency room is a great place to get patched up, if you have a true emergency, a heart attack, but it takes only a few

hours in the emergency room to run up a bill not just in the thousands of dollars. there are very few people who can pay that. the bills get very expensive, people can't pay it and the cost gets passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher taxes or insurance premiums. nobody knows that well, governor romney who used to make that argument all the time. >> he used to make the argument that you just made, and he used to call the system that he is now in favor of socialism. let's hear the way he said that a few years ago. >> when they show up at the hospital, they get care. they get free care paid for by you and me. >> right. >> if that's not a form of socialism, i don't know what is. >> governor dean, there he is again. >> that's a ridiculous statement that he just said. socialism is the veterans

administration, where the government owns the hospital and hires the doctors. socialism is nothing to do with our american system. what he was just describing is in fact the system that everybody lives under. somebody is always paying for somebody else. it's incomprehensible to me that a governor who did what he did could even think these things. >> isn't this just the politics of where he is now? that his party has driven so far to the right on this that they simply won't allow a candidate who knows better to give any other answer than what, this was the answer george w. bush used to give, by the way, is hey they can go to the emergency room. >> that's exactly right. the great thing about romney, i remember when he did this in massachusetts and i followed it very closely. the great thing about romney is he spoke about universal coverage. he was making the argument for individual responsibility. but he also understood if you were going to demand people take

responsibility, you had to guarantee them health care. in today, today's republican party, guaranteeing health care for people is too much. it's big government. so romney now is turning himself into a prets elbecause he can't admit that's what he used to think was a good idea. >> we have a bunch of clips. but i want to go to some polling information. it indicates that the health care issue is hurting romney with seniors. a new reuters poll finds that romney is losing their support. before the democratic convention romney led among seniors by 20 points and now romney leads president obama by less than four points. that is a dramatic drop. >> it is a dramatic drop. and that's partly because of the additional of paul ryan. you can put lipstick on a pig

but it's still a pig. paul ryan's program was the elimination of medicare. and i believe barack obama is going to get elected president of the united states because he's going to take florida and ohio and that's the death knell for any republican ticket. the bold person he picked was really badly cut into his margin with seniors. i think at the end of the day it's conceivable that obama will actually win the senior vote. >> howard dean and jonathan cohn. thank you for joining me tonight. >> thanks for having us. >> thanks. coming up in the rewrite. the things that paul ryan just can't say anymore because he doesn't want to get in trouble with mitt. and we'll look into the most manipulated tax return in history. this country was built by working people. the economy needs manufacturing.

machines, tools, people making stuff. companies have to invest in making things. infrastructure, construction, production. we need it now more than ever. chevron's putting more than $8 billion dollars back in the u.s. economy this year. in pipes, cement, steel, jobs, energy. we need to get the wheels turning. i'm proud of that. making real things... for real. ...that make a real difference. ♪

made gluten-free cereals in a bunch of yummy flavors. like cinnamon chex, honey nut chex, and chocolate chex... we're in cereal heaven. so thanks. from the mcgregors, 'cause we love chex.

why does mitt romney put his money in the cayman islands? well, paul ryan used to say, the cayman island is the place to hide your money. that's what paul ryan used to say. he doesn't say that anymore, and that's in the rewrite. but mitt romney's tax returns are next. if you are one of the millions of men

who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and...

is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%, you can save on your monthly prescription. [ male announcer ] dosing and application sites between these products differ. women and children should avoid contact with application sites. discontinue androgel and call your doctor if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in a child, or, signs in a woman which may include changes in body hair or a large increase in acne, possibly due to accidental exposure. men with breast cancer or who have or might have prostate cancer, and women who are, or may become pregnant or are breast feeding should not use androgel. serious side effects include worsening of an enlarged prostate, possible increased risk of prostate cancer, lower sperm count, swelling of ankles, feet, or body, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing during sleep, and blood clots in the legs. tell your doctor about your medical conditions and medications, especially insulin, corticosteroids, or medicines to decrease blood clotting. talk to your doctor today about androgel 1.62% so you can use less gel. log on now to androgeloffer.com

and you could pay as little as ten dollars a month for androgel 1.62%. what are you waiting for? this is big news. ♪ [ sighs ] [ bird chirps ] [ bird squawks ] ♪ [ bird screeching ] ♪ [ elevator bell dings ] [ sighs ] how mad is she? she kicked me out. but i took the best stuff. i'll get the wrench. ♪ [ male announcer ] kohler's tresham collection. life. with a twist. ♪ in the spotlight tonight, willard m. and ann d. romney's

379 page income tax return for 2011. >> we saw him manipulating his own tax returns to plump up has taxes to 14%. >> not taking the charitable deductions. he said i guess he's not qualified because that's exactly what he did last week to get his number up. it's fair to say that a lot of those 47% that he was slandering earlier in the week probably pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes overall than he does. >> along with the 2011 tax return on friday, the romney campaign released a statement from pricewaterhouse coopers that said the lowest effective personal income tax rate that romney enjoyed since 1990 was 13.6% and the average rate that

mitt romney since 1990 was 20%. joining me now, david k. johnston, a professor at syracuse university and the author of the new book "the fine print" and steven a certified public accountant and managing partner. he specializes in high net worth individuals. what have we learned? >> well, romney, as you just showed in the clip, by his own standard has about $500,000 reasons he's disqualified. if he doesn't win he can file an amended tax return over the next three years and take the full charitable deduction. we still haven't seen his 2009 return, which would be when, if he sought any forgiveness from the u.s. government for having undeclared account or if he was

involved in the ubs criminal tax shelter activities in any way, that would have come forward, among many other things we haven't learned about. >> steven, what would we look for in the 2009 return romney is refusing to release? that's the one where he would have been able to take advantage of a special amnesty program that the irs had to forgive any criminal liability for having offshore accounts that had not been declared. we would find that in the 2009 return? >> no, that's not correct. the form you're talking about, it's 90-22. and the f-bar is not part of the tax filing. it's done by june 30th each year without extension. so in the 2009 tax return itself, you would not find this form whether he filed it or not.

and the amnesty is a little bit misleading. because the amnesty still required everybody to pay 20% at that time on the first amnesty program of the highest value of their account. so although the amnesty was from criminal prosecution, there was a fairly heavy tax burden on the highest value of the account. but you would not see that in his 2009 actual filing. the f-bars were not part of the tax return. >> and what reasons are there, steven, to put money in the cayman islands other than, as paul ryan used to say, to hide your money. >> there are investment opportunities that could be available elsewhere. frankly, he's paying tax on all of his income, so the fact that the money is in the cayman islands, he's created a different trust there to protect it from possibility liability but all the income gets reported whether it's in the cayman islands or in lucks borg or on 47th street. >> how much control does the

blind trust have that delivers this to romney every year. how much control do they have over how much income gets delivered? >> a great deal. a curious thing, remember the draft we saw of the 2011 return, it showed $7 million more income than ultimately showed up on the filed 2011 return. that's not exactly a small difference. by not seeing the previous years' returns. if he owed taxes in the past, you would see these adjustments through his tax returns. it's very significance that the price waterhouse letter talks about taxes owed rather than paid. and uses a term of art, as prepared, not as ultimately filed or refiled under a 1040 x. that's an amended return after the fact. >> steven, the, in your experience, i've talked to tax

practitioners, both lawyers and accountants, who's dealt with a lot of these cayman islands accounts and foreign account. they're telling me in their experience there has been a very, very, very big use of this amnesty that was provided to get those accounts into a legal status. has that been your experience with those accounts? >> yes. well what happened is many banks, ubs in particular, had to come forth with less of all of their accounts, account holders in switzerland and many of those people were brought in by the irs and had to file back tax returns for ten years and also pay that 20% which i referred to which is now up to 27.5%. so there's no question that a tremendous amount of tax has been raised by the internal revenue service on bringing these people into the fold.

>> and david, bringing them into the fold is kind of a charitable term for making them -abi law-abiding. >> this was a forgiveness for improper conduct. i've been on romney all the time to release returns back to 1984. he won't answer questions about when did you actually pay the taxes that you owed. >> steven and david, thank you for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >> coming up, with just one day left for republicans to convince crazy todd akin to quit the senate race in missouri, newt gingrich goes to missouri to convince akin to stay in. and in the rewrite, paul ryan has to keep rewriting paul ryan now that he has to keep pleasing mitt romney. not to mention, american voters.

[ female announcer ] born from the naturally sweet monk fruit, something this delicious could only come from nature. now from the maker of splenda sweeteners, discover nectresse. the only 100% natural, no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit. the rich, sweet taste of sugar. nothing artificial. ♪ it's all that sweet ever needs to be. new nectresse. sweetness naturally. new nectresse. i i had pain in my abdomen...g. it just wouldn't go away. i was spotting, but i had already gone through menopause. these symptoms may be nothing... but they could be early warning signs of a gynecologic cancer, such as cervical, ovarian, or uterine cancer. feeling bloated for no reason. that's what i remember. seeing my doctor probably saved my life. warning signs are not the same for everyone. if you think something's wrong... see your doctor. ask about gynecologic cancer.

and get the inside knowledge.

newt gingrich has gone to missouri to campaign for this year's craze yes, sir republican senate candidate todd akin. now, can mitt romney let newt gang rich campaign for him? tomorrow night, senator claire will join me in a last word sclusive. next, paul ryan has to keep rewriting paul ryan. jack, you're a little boring. boring. boring. [ jack ] after lauren broke up with me, i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn...

giada... really good. yes! [ jack ] ...and alicia. ♪ this girl is on fire [ male announcer ] use any citi card to get the benefits of private pass. more concerts, more events, more experiences. [ jack ] hey, who's boring now? [ male announcer ] get more access with the citi card. [ crowd cheering, mouse clicks ] [ male announcer ] get more access with the citi card. well, if itmr. margin?margin. don't be modest, bob. you found a better way to pack a bowling ball. that was ups. and who called ups? you did, bob. i just asked a question.

it takes a long time to pack a bowling ball. the last guy pitched more ball packers. but you... you consulted ups. you found a better way. that's logistics. that's margin. find out what else ups knows. i'll do that. you're on a roll. that's funny. i wasn't being funny, bob. i know. in tonight's rewrite, paul ryan continues to rewrite paul ryan. on the many things that paul ryan can no longer say. now that he's mitt romney's running mate. two years ago paul ryan said, correctly, that the cayman islands are quote the place you hide your money. see? paul ryan can be right sometimes. but he can't be right about the cayman islands anymore, thanks to mitt romney. so he just doesn't mention the cayman islands anymore. and a few years ago, paul ryan said this about his favorite

philosopher. >> i grew up reading ayn rand and it taught my quite a bet about who i am and what my value systems are and what my believes are. it's inspired my so much that it's required reading in my office for my staff. the reason i got involved in public service if i had to credit one thinker it would be ayn rand. when i had to point out that ayn rand was an atheist, paul ryan was then forced to say this. >> i reject her philosophy. it's an atheist philosophy. >> which was exactly what we were hoping he would say. in that same speech where paul

ryan swore his devotion to an atheist radical russian philosopher, paul ryan said this about social security. >> social security right now is a collectivist system. >> so there was paul ryan, an elected republican congressman at the time calling this country's most popular government program a communist system. paul ryan very cloerly and very publicly was saying he hated social security. hates it. every bit as much as he hates communism. that quote has proved inconvenient for him now that he's running with mitt romney and he is asking america to entrust the future of social security to a republican

presidency and a republican congress. and in ryan's case, to a social security hating vice president. this weekend, craig gilbert of the milwaukee journal sentinel confronted paul ryan having characterized social security as a collectivist program. to which ryan said simply, quote, i don't think of it like that. we can only hope that paul ryan thinks that if his debate with joe biden is going to have that question come up, that it's going to be that easy. we can only hope that if paul ryan thinks that if the debate moderator raises that quote of paul ryan calling social security a communist program, that he can simply say i don't think of it like that and just move on. and the same interview, the thin-skinned paul ryan claimed

about conservative pundits that they were just doing what they always do. he said i think that's just what conservatives do by nature. i think that's just the nature of conservative punditry to complain about any imperfection they might see. of course, they don't. conservety pundits get behind the nominee no matter what. and conservative pundits are behind them. some of them could not contain the shock and stupidity of what mitt romney said. but they do all support romney's election and some of them have had to do more than a little rewriting.

of their attitudes toward romney to get behind mitt romney in this election. but they're all good soldiers. and they all, they all fall in line. >> i may as well tell you what my prediction is. i think -- well i'll put it in a nutshell. if we don't run chris christie, romney will be the nominee and will lose. >> mitt romney is definitely the one we need know. mitt romney is definitely the one we need now. >> if todd and the people of missouri prove it's a close i'm so g lad you called. thank you. we're not in london, are we? no. why? apparently my debit card is. what? i know. don't worry, we have cancelled your old card. great. thank you. in addition to us monitoring your accounts for unusual activity, you could also set up free account alerts. okay. [ female announcer ] at wells fargo we're working around the clock to help protect your money

and financial information. here's your temporary card. welcome back. how was london? [ female announcer ] wells fargo. together we'll go far. ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing a stunning work of technology. introducing the entirely new lexus es. and the first-ever es hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. made gluten-free cereals in a bunch of yummy flavors. like cinnamon chex, honey nut chex, and chocolate chex... we're in cereal heaven. so thanks. from the mcgregors, 'cause we love chex.

oh, it's so good! if this image robbed you of the great taste of untopped triscuit... goat cheese? come on! this is america! ...sorry. [ male announcer ] 100% whole grain woven for an untoppable taste. [ crunch ]

>> if todd and the people of missouri prove it's a close race, what's the moral base for not backing the republican nominee. newt gingrich was in

missouri today causing trobl for romney and campaigning for todd akin. a candidate many in the republican party called on to leave the race. >> if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to shut that whole thing down. assuming that didn't work or something, i think that should be punishment, and that ought to be in the rapist and not attacking the child. >> the legitimate rape candidate has since apologized and he seems to think he will have no problem gaining support from his fellow republicans, including mitt romney. >> my expectation would be in october governor romney is going to be for the entire ticket, for todd akin and clearly romney has to carry missouri in order to win the presidency. and when he carries missouri -- how many people are going to split their ticket?

so i think that's why frankly in the end i think that todd akin is the next senator for missouri. >> tomorrow is the dead lien for him to seek a court order to have his named removed from the ballot. but that seems unlikely. >> the reason i'm in the race is because of people of missouri chose me to do a job. i take that very seriously and we are going to be totally focused on win the seat. because that's what i was told do by the republican voters and i plan to get that job done. >> joining me now karen finney. karen, claire mchaskell will be with me tomorrow night when she will know if she is with it todd akin to the end and i think newt gingrich is right about something.

that the republicans will come flooding back into the race to do anything to stop claire mchaskell. >> so you are in this much trouble, and the only person that you can get to come in to help you plead you're case is newt gingrich. shelly adelson's $10 million couldn't save. it shows how bad off todd akin is here. the i think it's highly possible the republicans will have some talking points prepared as to why they're going to have to go back on what they said and support akin. they may do it less overtly. but they don't, they know this seat is important to them in terms of the balance of the senate and because it's important to romney. the.

>> let's listen to how newt gingrich explained away saying dumb things. >> let me say something. i have occasion said pretty dumb things in my career. my wife still occasionally looks at me and says lunar colony. and i get it. but if saying something dumb disqualified you, joe biden couldn't be vice president. >> so newt is there saying you know, i've occasionally said dumb things and he proceeds to say yet another dumb thing. >> yeah. >> would you characterize the legitimate rape comment as just a dumb thing a politician said. >> no. that -- i mean, come on. that was so offensive. i mean, if that is not -- i have to tell you when he said that, that ought to be used as a slogan for why we need to reinstitute sex education in our schools.

because the guy was so misinformed. it was ignorant and disrespectful. pull that apart for a second. the idea that we've got some kind of magical power as women to deal with that situation, it was horrible. and that's not the only thing he said. he said a number of things that if i were a voter in missouri i would be very concerned with the idea that someone like that could sit in the building behind me and be on like a senate, i don't know, intelligence committee or have any kind of access to any kind of top secret information, when the man seriously thinks that there is a distinction between forceable or legitimate rape, even that distinction is offensive, and just being raped. not to mention that he has a totally misconstrued idea about how the female body works. >> and even with todd akin revealing himself to be as crazy as he is, claire is still in a tough race in that state.

the real clear politics poll average is basically a 5 poen 3% lead. she's got 48% to akin's 42. 7%. so that is no where near something that claire can feel confident about in that state, is it? >> no, absolutely not. she definitely has a lot of work to do. certainly if you consider that it is likely that the republicans will come back in and start spending money heavily in the state, she's going to have a tough race. as much as we like to poke fun at todd akin and his ignorant comments and his misconstrued ideas, this is going to be a tough race, no question. and i agree, i never thought i would hear myself say this, with newt gingrich on the other hand as well. you're not probably going to see a lot of ticket splitters in the